Russell Sage College Hosts Forum on Peace Corps

An information session on the Peace Corps was held at Russell Sage College in Troy on November 10th. There were 24 RPCVs from the RPCV-NENY group participating.

The audience was the World 420 class at Sage, comprised of junior and senior young women and their teachers. There were maybe 60 students present.

The evening started out with a slide show of photos from various Volunteers around the world

The audience then watched to a brief message from President Obama about Peace Corps service, and viewed a wonderful video made by a recently returned RPCV about her time in Tonga in the South Pacific. Then they were given some basic facts about the Peace Corps in order to have context for all the stories they would soon hear.

Then there was a panel session featuring four Volunteers: Stacey Thayer (Togo), Sue Senecah (Western Samoa), Taya Owens (Ukraine/Uzbekistan), and Jermaine Privott (St. Lucia). All were very articulate and told compelling stories.

The evening continued with the rest of the 20 Volunteers sitting in front of the audience. One by one they took the microphone and told the students where they had served, what they had done, and what was memorable about their experience. Then they entertained questions from the audience.

Comments overheard the day from one of the teachers included, “I have never seen a group of adults so passionate about anything! Their stories were so inspiring!”